Always in my Heart
by Tricia dSC
Summary: With the height of the Great War, Draco remembers and wishes for his wife to be home...


Disclaimer:If I owned Harry Potter, I wouldn't be writing this would I? ::sulk::  
  
Author's Notes: This is part one of a MiniFic I had started a while back. It's fluffy now... but I haven't gotten to Part two yet. Also, I've re- written it, so yes. Enjoy! Also, I re-named it, after that line in the Maroon 5 song entitled "This Love".  
  
Always in my Heart [Part One]  
  
"I'll be back soon," she had whispered to him as she stroked his cheeks with her hands, giving him an earnest kiss. Dusk was approaching and as the stars came out, she had packed the necessary items she would need in her journey. He remembered the face of their old Headmaster appearing through the flames of their fireplace and telling them that she was to be sent to the front line.  
  
"Don't leave me..." Draco had begged her when she took a step towards the fireplace. "I have to go, they need me."  
  
The look in her eyes when she had told him that had made his heart stop. He knew that he would be unable to prevent her from going, but deep down he was hoping that she would.  
  
"I need you more..." he said softly as she stepped into the flames and flooed to Hogwarts.  
  
Taking a glance at the marble fireplace for the third time that hour, Draco's heart hoped she would appear that second, even if his mind knew better. It had been three months since that day, and his habit of casting hopeful looks at the fireplace was growing. The evening was calm and it was almost one o' clock in the morning, yet he knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep.  
  
'There's no need to become an insomniac, Draco.' his friend had told him when they visited him last week. Looking at the large mirror that hung on the wall, he saw the dark patches of skin under his grey eyes. 'It's easy for him to say that, his wife isn't out there.' Draco thought spitefully. Running a hand through his limp blond hair he stood abruptly, and with a last fleeting glance at the dark fireplace, he left the cold room.  
  
His senses were soon overflooded with the pictures of her when he entered their room. 'I can still smell her... vanilla...' he thought as his head touched the pillows of their bed. Closing his eyes he couldn't bear to look at the framed pictures that hung all around him; the memories in which each frame held was too much for his sleep-deprived mind to endure. As his mind finally began to haze with sleep, he thought of the times when she was still with him.  
  
Watching as she walked briskly towards him him, he sidestepped, blocking her path.  
  
"Not today, Malfoy." Hermione said as she moved left, glaring at the boy as he reflected her movement. "Oh but it's tradition my dear Gryffindor." Draco teased as he continued to annoy her.  
Yet despite the bothersome smirk that graced his pristine lips, Hermione couldn't help but let out the smallest of smiles, knowing full well that it was tradition. Although she didn't know how or why it became so, the foreknowledge of him stepping out of the stone alcove to block her path had given her something to look forward to before going to Advanced Arithmancy.  
  
"Despite that fact, we're going to be late if we stay out here any longer." she reminded him as she looked straight into his eyes. "You say that everyday, now be spontaneous for once and be late... unless you're a coward." he goaded, knowing full well that her pride was something that she wore on her sleeve. "Listen here, Malfoy! I am no coward! I just care for my education; unlike some well-pampered, egotistical, bratty, pureblooded, prat!" "What, no 'ferret face' today, love?" Draco added as his bemused expression broke through.  
  
That was another thing she had no idea as to where it spawned from. When in Merlin's name had he, Draco Malfoy, begun calling her such sickeningly nice things? It wasn't an everyday occurance (like their 'rendezvous'... if you could call it that), but it was enough to make her wonder if he did intend on committing foul play. Yesterday he had called her 'my dear' and it was approximately a week prior to that day he had told her she was "one stubborn wench" and that "ofcourse I have no qualms with fiesty women, I happen to find them wholly appealing".  
  
Feeling a bit apprehensive as she remained silent and opted to stare at him with a fixated gaze, Draco ran a hand to his now shoulder-length flaxen hair, determined to reciprocate her stare. He knew that she was beginning to suspect his strange behavior, it was one thing to distract her from class, but it was another to call her 'love' like it was as natural as magic. Yet he couldn't help but slip those little terms of endearment whenever her amber eyes flashed with the feistiness and spunk she was well known for. 'If only my habit of irritating Potter and Weasley would be attractive to her,' he thought, snorting at the ridiculous notion.  
  
"What was that for?" she asked finally breaking their silence. "Erm, nothing, just lost in thought." he replied with the faintest hint of a blush gracing his fair skin.  
  
Raising a brow at his feeble excuse, Hermione scrutinized the blonde Slytherin even more, searching his appearance and hoping to find a clue to his peculiar behavior. It wasn't his hair, that she knew for sure, if there was any change to the well known platinum-blonde hair, the gossip amongst the girls of Hogwarts would have ran amuck within the halls before breakfast. His smirk was still the same, nothing could fix that, and it wasn't the fact that he was some-what taller then last week. Then when his eyes turned a dark, smoky color, she knew her answer. It wasn't the same 'almost clear' grey she was accustomed to all those years before, but it was a darker, deeper looking color resembling the clouds after it rained. Feeling her cheeks warm at the comparison, she broke her eye contact and smiled.  
  
Brushing passed him, Hermione felt his hand encompass her upper-arm gently.  
  
"May I walk you to class, Ms. Granger?" he asked, his voice stripped of all it's pretenses, as his smirk transfigured into a shy smile. "How kind of you, Mr. Malfoy." she replied as she went along, a playful grin appearring on her bow shaped lips. "Didn't you know, Hermione, it's our new tradition."  
  
"Look who we have here," he whispered into her ear as he leaned over her hunched figure, giving her a quick kiss.  
  
Startled, she jerked her head up. With a groan of pain, Draco rubbed his assulted cheek.  
  
"Oh Draco, I'm sorry! I didn't know it was you!" Hermione apologized, flushing a deep scarlet when she saw the left side of his face begin to redden. "No harm done, love. Just a little jab." he reassured her as he took a seat beside her. "What are you reading?" "The complete works of Newt Scamander. I found that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was only an introductory book to his more detailed study of several creatures." she said, her voice reforming to it's 'smarter than thou' tone, but he knew it was only because they were talking about books.  
  
Snatching the thick book from her grasp, he flipped through the pages, skimming over the sizeable amount of words. She smiled softly as he lifted a golden eyebrow into an arch, knowing that the chapter "Muggle Cognition of Sea Creatures and its History" was some what amusing to the sheltered pureblood. After closing the book with a dull slap, he threw it over his shoulder and laughed as Hermione gasped at his action.  
  
"Absolutely rubbish..."  
  
Slapping his arm as she picked up the abused book, Hermione smoothed over it's creased pages as she listened to Draco mutter on about the ludicrous muggle interpretation on the true purpose of Nessie the Lock Ness Monster.  
  
"Oh stop your ranting, Draco. Now come on, I'm hungry and intend to eat my weight in shepherd's pie." "Come now, Hermione. You know you must share with the other students, greed doesn't become you." he teased as they walked hand in hand down the corridor of the ancient castle. "Says the boy who..." she started only to be cut off by a gentle kiss. "Hush hush, Granger. I know you weren't one to kiss and tell." "Well, with a lofty kiss like that, I might as well tell."  
  
He looked around the cold study room. How could it be that this very room was his favorite as a child? He remembered when he use to spend every spare moment in the room, watching with naive eyes as Lucius studied his dark arts. Now looking at his father sit in his overstuffed dragon hide chair wih a glass of red wine in his hand, Draco realized that if he didn't escape his current lifestyle soon, it would be him in that chair in the future.  
  
"What is the reason you summoned me, father?" "There is a rumor fluttering around the community, Draco." Lucius said as he took a sip of the wine. "Of what?" "A traitor, Draco. A traitor to his blood and his family."  
  
His eyes widened at the words his father spoke. 'He couldn't have found out,' he thought as he followed the elder Malfoy's cold expression shift from the fire to him.  
  
"Do you know who it is?" Lucius asked in a low voice, watching his son's gaze falter for only a second. "Is it expected of me to know?" Draco countered, knowing full well that it was too late and he was discovered. "You must think of me as an imbecile to try and deceive me, boy. You should have known better than hide your relationship with the muggle." Lucius Malfoy said as stood to face Draco. "The word hiding implies that I'm ashamed of what I feel for Hermione, I love her Father. I doubt you've ever felt anything like that. If you had, you wouldn't have become the man that you are, so desperate for power and ambition that you can't see the monster you've become. I love Hermione and that's what's going to keep me from repeating your mistakes, Father. So, you're wrong. I never tried to deceive you nor was I ever hiding what I felt for her. You just never cared enough to see it. I don't need your approval anymore nor do I need your concern." Draco replied bravely, he was now a man; despite the fact that he looked up to his father, he would no longer allow him to play the totalitarian dictator over his life . "The war is soon, Boy, and the Dark Lord will destroy all the mudbloods and muggle-lovers in the world. Will you stand by your foolish mistake and continue whatever you have with the mudblood despite the chance of death?" his father asked, raising a silver eyebrow at him, as if challenging his son.  
  
Knowing of how dangerous it would be for both himself and Hermione, Draco knew his heart wouldn't have it any other way.  
  
"Yes,"  
  
"Where are we going, Draco?" Hermione asked as she was led by the hand, blindfolded, by her beau of seven months. Graduation was in a week and news of the war was looming throughout Hogwarts, everyone anticipating and dreading the day. Slowly entering the clearing that lay beyond the Forbidden Forest, Draco assisted Hermione to sit onto a large picnic cloth, bewitched to keep wind and insects away.  
  
"A little place I found a while back." he informed as he sat next to her, removing the cloth that lay over her eyes. Blinking once, Hermione's gaze was immediately pulled into Draco's misty gaze, the love and warmth she found in its depth making her heart tingle.  
  
"It's magnificent here," she commented, seeing a stampede of wild unicorns run in the distance while the sun gave off a dark orange tint, signaling dusk. Draco watched her in silent revere, knowing that what was soon to come would either make him eternally happy, or miserable for the rest of his natural born life.  
  
"Um... Hermione... well, we've been together for well months now... and I was, well, wondering... if..." "You're not breaking up with me are you?" the Gryffindor suddenly cut in, a type of hysteria illuminating in her eyes. "What? No, No! Ofcourse not! What I meant was... Hermione, will you... marry me?" Draco asked meekly, feeling more apprehensive than he did when he first asked her out. Mouth hanging agape, Hermione stared at wonder at the ring a nervous looking Draco held, the large diamonds and platinum band reflecting the suns last rays. Feeling tears obstruct her voice and blur her vision, Hermione nodded her head furiously.  
  
Draco moaned in disturbance as he felt the light shine through his eyelids, waking him from his dreams. Slowly opening his eyes he sat up, looking through his and Hermione's room, intending to stand before he noticed a shapely lump on his wife's side of the bed. Had he committed adultery and slept with another woman last night? 'No, I couldn't have, I would never...' he concluded, becoming curious as to who would sleep next to him. Silently turning to the figure, Draco pulled off the sheets, only to find himself in shock, for there sleeping in front of him, was Hermione Malfoy.  
  
Feeling someone's stare bore through her, the young witch opened her eyes only to find the face of her husband staring at her in shock. Smiling up at him, Hermione sat up and wrapped her arms around his middle.  
  
"Goodmorning, Love."  
  
Author's Notes: Okay, so I didn't have time to re-write the last two 'chunks' of the story, oh well sigh I simply didn't have enough time, because my internet is going to die, and I wanted to re-post. Lol Thanks for reading this, please Read and Review. 


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